


Love DOES Cost a Thing

by theinksplotch



Category: Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adopted Keith (Voltron), Escort Lance, Gay Keith (Voltron), Minor Allura/Shiro (Voltron), Texan Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-09-27 03:14:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9949859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theinksplotch/pseuds/theinksplotch
Summary: 'HIRE HOT CUBAN BOYS TO DATE YOU NOW,' the site read in big, blocky letters."Huh," Keith said. "Well that's convenient."Keith just needed a date to his aunt's wedding to make his parents think his college life was less depressing than it actually was. If only he'd known what he was getting himself into when he clicked that bright, blue link.





	1. You told Mom What?!

Chapter 1:

 

 

**"SHIRO!"**

Shiro looked up from the English essay he was writing (or rather, trying to write) and frowned. He turned to his dorm mate, Matt, who was sitting on his bed, drumming his fingers furiously as he nodded his head to the beat that his headphones blasted into his ears.

"Did you hear something?"

"What?" his friend asked too loudly. Before Shiro could answer, the door to their dorm was thrown open, revealing a sweaty, angry looking Keith.

Shiro gulped. Uh-Oh. "So...I'm guessing Mom called?"

"Why, Shiro? _Why_ did you tell her I had a boyfriend?" Keith panted. It seemed he'd run all the way over here from his dorm across campus. It would've been funny, if not for the look on his face.

Shiro took a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry. Mom asked if you were participating in school activities or, you know, doing anything besides sleeping and going to classes. Which you haven't."

Keith opened his mouth to protest.

"Playing Overwatch with Pidge in a dark room doesn't count," Shiro said.

Keith closed his mouth.

"Anyways, she thought you were depressed or something. She wanted to pull you out of school, Keith. So I panicked and made up a fake boyfriend for you. But its fine. As long as she doesn't want to meet him, she won't know he's fake. I mean, she's not going to drive from Texas to Oregon just to meet him, right?" Shiro gave his younger brother a reassuring smile. Keith sighed and flopped onto Shiro's bed, burying his face in the traditional Japanese quilt; their mother had knitted one for each of them right before they left for college. Shiro's was three years older.

"She invited him to Christmas," he mumbled into the quilt.

"Huh?" Shiro asked, not sure if he heard him right.

Keith looked up, his face devoid of emotion: regular Keith, but Shiro could tell he was still panicking.

"My _boyfriend._ Mom invited him over for Christmas break. She even added him as my plus one to Aunt Lisa's wedding. Then she said something weird like 'he could celebrate with us and be back with his family in Cuba in no time'. Not really sure what she meant by that."

But Shiro did. "Right," he muttered, putting his face in his hands. "I told her he was from Cuba."

"You told her _what!?"_

"I told her he was from Cuba. It was kind of a 'heat of the moment' thing. I wanted him to seem real." Shiro paused. "But...you are okay, right? Like, college isn't to stressful or anything?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "Stop worrying about me. I hate it when you do that."

Shiro threw his hands up in defense. "Alright, alright. I'll stop acting like a concerned older brother who _actually cares about your well being."_

"Good," Keith said. He got up off of Shiro's bed.

"Where are you going?"

"To fix this fucking mess you got me into. I'll just tell Mom he can't come this year or something."

Shiro frowned. That wouldn't work on their mother, he knew it. She would want to talk to 'the boyfriend', and she could be _very_ persuasive.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"If worse comes to worst, I'll just have to find a boyfriend."

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Where are you going to find a gay Cuban boy in Oregon and how are you gonna get him to date you by the time Christmas break rolls around?"

Keith's mouth set in a determined line. "Hopefully, Google will know."

'Good luck," Shiro said, turning back to his English paper. "And I'm very sorry for telling Mom that you have a hot Cuban boyfriend."

"You are not forgiven," his little brother replied before leaving the dorm and closing the door behind him. Shiro laughed under his breath. Maybe...maybe this was a good thing, Keith meeting someone new. He never really did much to have fun, but he'd always been that way, even before Shiro's family first adopted him back when he was four. He'd never even known his birth parents. He'd come out his sophomore year of high school and had to deal with people giving him shit for being gay. He just always seemed so sad, and it kind of broke Shiro's heart.

 As if he'd read his mind, Keith's head popped back into the room.

"Shiro?"

When Shiro looked up, his younger brother gave him an awkward thumbs up. "I'm okay." And then he was gone again. Shiro smiled and finally, _finally_ returned to is not-even-started English paper.

"Hey, what did your brother want? He seemed mad." Matt said loudly, his headphones still in his ears.

Shiro's eye twitched, and he put the unmarked paper and pencil in his desk drawer. Maybe he'd have better luck working on it tomorrow...

 

 

 

 


	2. Thanks, Professor Coran

Chapter 2:

 

Two days. Christmas break started in _two days._ And Keith was still without the likes of a hot, Cuban boy. He was currently lying in his bed with all the lights turned off, wallowing in self-pity. He was in the deepest of shit now; the more days that went by, the further he got from being able to just come clean. Two weeks ago, when his mother called, practically bursting with excitement about this _amazing boyfriend_ Keith had managed to get himself was when he should've told the truth. It was too late now. Since then, Keith had gotten a call or text from her every day telling him how excited she was to meet this boyfriend. And everyday, she would ask a different question about him, questions that Keith had started to make up answers to as he went along.

"O-oh, how many siblings does he have? Uhh...like five," Keith had told her one day while he was doing laundry.

"What part of Cuba is he from? Y-you'll just have to ask him when you meet him. He can't wait to meet you," he'd told her shamefully in their most recent call. He'd contemplated other options too, ranging from 'we broke up' to 'the doctors say he doesn't have long', but each scenario ended with his mother wanting to meet 'the boyfriend'. Because Ai Shirogane was a very stubborn woman, and most of the time, she flat out refused to take no for an answer, especially if it had anything to do with her sons. It was exhausting, how supportive she was being of him right now, but then again, he couldn't blame her. Keith had never really done anything to make his parents proud of him, besides getting into college. He was willing to bet they thought he was gonna end up living in their basement (he probably was). They'd just always had to accept the fact that Keith was an introverted loser, and in a way, Keith felt bad. _They'd_ gotten saddled with _him._ They'd just happened to pick the wrong kid, and it wasn't their fault. On paper, Keith had been a healthy, four year old boy when they chose to adopt him. How were they supposed to know he would grow up to be everything that the "ideal" kid was not? : unpopular, awkward, and gay. Maybe...maybe that's why he kept lying to his parents about having a boyfriend. Because they were actually _happy_ for him. He'd gotten a text from his dad the other day: 'proud of you. can't wait to meet him!' it read. _Proud of you._ How sad was it that his parents were proud of him for doing something as mundane as _getting a boyfriend?_ They hadn't made that much of a big deal when Shiro started dating Allura, a pretty British girl with nice hair who owned three pet rats. Because Shiro had stuff going for him. He was in a research program funded by fucking _NASA._ He was on the right path to becoming an astronaut. And what was Keith doing? Lying in his bed while he was _supposed_ to be working on his Microbiology research paper that was due the next day. Yet another reason why Keith couldn't tell his parents the truth: If his Mom knew he had literally _nothing_ going on for himself, she would most definitely pull him out of school. 'You can be lazy here in Texas for free', she would tell him. But it's not like Keith was _trying_ to be lazy and waste his parents' money. He simply just hadn't found a major that interested him yet. He wasn't like Shiro, who'd known he wanted to be a "spaceman" ever since he first rode Space Mountain at Disneyland when he was 10. He knew he would find something _eventually_ _;_ he just needed more time, was all (Shiro said it was like that for some people). Besides, Keith  _could not_ move back to Texas. He could practically see his life if that happened. Goodbye, college. Goodbye, independence. Hello, shitty convenience store job. Hello, living out the rest of his life in his parent's basement.

Suddenly, Keith's phone went off. He groaned. No doubt another one of his mother's texts. What question would she ask this time? His boyfriend's social security number? Keith picked up his phone, squinting at the tiny words on the too-bright screen. "Oh," he mumbled. It was Pidge.

**Tiny Evil Bird:**

 

**Just your Friendly Neighborhood Child Prodigy here to remind you about that Microbiology paper you have due tomorrow at 10 am sharp**

**\- p**

 

Keith groaned. Of course she had his schedule memorized. His best friend Pidge was probably the only reason he survived college at all. They'd met in the beginning of the year when they'd been set to be dorm mates and hit it off on account of their shared obsession with conspiracy theories (mothman, to be exact). Only, halfway through the first semester, the schoolboard realized that 'Pidge Gunderson ' was actually Katie Holt. She explained to them that she'd wanted to be taken seriously, and she'd suspected that just couldn't be accomplished if she remained a 16-year-old girl. Keith had already known of course; she'd told him as soon as she deemed him "trustworthy". Soon after she was relocated to the girl's dorms, she'd asked him if he would continue to call her Pidge, because it had a nice ring to it (it really did). Keith had obliged.

His phone went off again.

**Tiny Evil Bird:**

 

**Keith?**

**You know this paper is worth half of your grade, right?**

**Are you wallowing in self-pity again?**

**Don't make me come over there, Keith.**

 

Keith rolled his eyes and texted back 'starting it now', before turning the lights on and grabbing his laptop. His roommate, and other best friend (don't tell Pidge), Hunk, had already left for Christmas break, so Keith would be alone for the next two days. He clicked the Internet icon on his desktop screen, and the last site he was on opened: a Cuban dating site called cubanomingle.org. Keith had spent the last two weeks scouring the internet for ways to get what he needed. His most recent searches consisted of 'how to find a Cuban guy that will date me but I'm in Oregon', and 'I'm gay and I need a Cuban boyfriend asap'. Of course, nothing useful had come up, but Keith couldn't think about that right now. Because even when his independent college life was falling apart at the _fucking seams,_ education comes first. He hastily typed in the website his teacher had recommended that he use for this paper, microbiology4dummyz.com (Ha-ha). It was a site with a ton of adds. Keith grumbled under his breath. Thanks, Professor Coran. Because on top of everything else, a computer virus is just icing on the fucking cake.

But then Keith saw It. An add on the top left-hand corner of his screen: 'HIRE HOT CUBAN BOYS TO DATE YOU NOW', it read in bright blue letters. Under it, was a picture of a very attractive man with caramel colored skin grinning seductively at the camera.

"Huh," Keith muttered, microbiology paper forgotten. "Well that's convenient." And he clicked on it. Nothing lost, nothing gained, right?

The link took him to a shitty looking website called lovedoescostathing.com and then to a page labled EXOTIC HOTTIES. Keith frowned. The hell was this? He scrolled through the page, reading things here and there. After going through the whole thing, he gathered that he could actually _hire_ someone to date him for a given amount of time, no strings attached. Basically, he was hiring an actor. He just had to pay an up-front fee of fifty dollars, and the rest was paid afterwards. Keith was in complete awe. Was this seriously a thing? It sounded too good to be true. Still...he had about $100 in his student card right now and he wouldn't need food for the next few weeks since he would be home...

He found a criteria section and quickly filled it out.

 **Height:** No Preference

 **Weight:** No Preference

 **Eye Color:** No Preference

 **Age:** 20-24

 **Ethnicity:** Cuban

He finished and clicked the 'Find my Man!' button at the end of the page. It began to load him onto another page  _painfully slow._ Keith huffed. Were the adds already getting to his computer, or was life just fucking with him?

As if on cue, Keith's phone started to ring. He answered it right away, knowing who it was before he even looked at the contact name.

"Hey, Mom."

"Keith!" his mother's voice sounded far away. "Can you hear me? You're on speaker phone; I'm making dinner!"

"I can here you fine, Mom. What are you making?"

"I don't even know. New neighbors keep giving me recipies for 'peach cobbler' and 'macaroni casserole'. I think they're just tired of smelling the squid."

Keith's mother had grown up in Japan and moved to America sometime after her twentieth birthday. She married Jem Shirogane, a Japanese-American, and between the two of them, Keith and Shiro had grown up with a mixture of traditional Japanese dishes and regular American food. They would have eggs and bacon for breakfast, then Miso Soup for dinner.

"Anyways, I have _one more_ question."

Keith sighed. "Mom-"

"I know, I know," she interrupted. "I'm supposed to wait until I meet him but, I'm just now realizing that you never even told me this boy's name!"

"H-his name...?" 

"Yes! He _does_ have a name, doesn't he?" 

Keith sputtered. "Well...ah...y-yes of course! It's...uh..."

At that very moment, the page finished loading (finally!), revealing a list of about a hundred names. But Keith didn't have time to sift through a hundred guys. He picked the first one that caught his eye and hastily clicked on it. 

"Lance," Keith blurted, feeling strangely winded. "His name is Lance Sanchez."

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to wait until Sunday to post this but i couldnt wait! Thank you for the comments. Im glad you guys liked the first chapter. Next chapter will most likely be up next sunday but if i finish earlier then maybe by next friday. Leave a comment if you wanna (:


	3. What the Fuck, Guys?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith's friends are DORKS

Chapter 3:

 

"Okay, but how can you _possibly_ believe that the Apollo 13 Moon Landing wasn't faked?"

Keith rolled his eyes. _Every day,_ this happened. Every day since Pidge met Shiro, they had the same argument. The world could literally end, zombies could take over, and Shiro and Pidge would still find time to argue about the Moon Landing. 

"I mean, there is factual evidence that the whole thing was a just a hoax staged by NASA," Pidge continued, flailing her arms around wildly the way she always did when she was deep in argument.  

"Your 'factual evidence' consists of a few conspiracy theories. NASA is a respectable organization," Shiro argued. Next to him, Allura was shaking her head, dyed white curls swaying back and forth in their loose ponytail. "Seriously guys. We've been sitting here for over an hour. If I hear one more thing about this damned moon landing, my head will explode."

They were currently seated in one of those trendy college coffee shops (the ones that had old sofas and coffee tables instead of chairs and actual tables) called 'The Place', sipping coffee that had long since turned cold and mooching off the free wifi. They'd been sitting there for so long, Keith was pretty sure his ass had molded into the sofa cushion by now.

Allura didn't know the half of it. Pidge could literally go for _hours._ Keith had learned that the hard way, of course: he spent most of the first semester of college as the butt of her debates before he realized challenging her meant getting himself into a year-long argument, which was exactly what Shiro did. Not that his brother seemed to mind, though. He'd never really had anybody to nerd out about space with before (Keith had tried to get into it for his brother's sake, but he never really could) and Keith could tell he was enjoying it, even if 'it' meant arguing with Pidge.

"Then how do you explain the famous Hammer Drop?" Shiro asked, not seeming to hear his girlfriend. "America didn't have access to that kind tech..." Keith tuned them out, deciding to focus on a more pressing matter. He was leaving for Texas in one day. But this time, there wasn't as much panic coursing through his veins. Last night, almost immediately after his payment went through, Keith received a message from Lance Sanchez:

**Can't wait to meet you! Meet me tomorrow at Giovaldi's. 7:00. Get ready to have your wildest dreams come true (;**

**-Lance**

The 'wildest dreams' thing sounded a bit weird, but Keith assumed it was part of the whole 'actor for hire' bit. The "date" started in an hour, and Keith wasn't exactly sure what was supposed to happen. How would he know how to spot Lance? What were they supposed to talk about the whole time? Wouldn't this boy much rather spend Christmas with his own family?

Suddenly, a little tab appeared in the corner of his laptop screen.

**Incoming Skype call from: Gordon Fucking Ramsey**

Keith accepted the call immediately, and Hunk's smiling face appeared on his screen. "Hey, guys. How's it going?"

The conversation about the Moon Landing halted, interrupted by a chorus of exited greetings. Hunk had only left for Hawaii a few days ago, but Keith missed having him around, and he knew the others did too. He'd become quite used to his little group of friends, and it felt slightly off to have one of them missing.

"Hey, buddy," Shiro said, finally taking a sip of his untouched coffee. "How was the flight?"

"Pretty good, actually. We hit a bit of turbulence towards the end, and I only threw up twice!"

"A new record," Pidge teased, causing Hunk to stick his tongue out at her. "What's with the big dorky gloves?"

Hunk raised an eyebrow, holding up his oven mitt-clad hands. "You mean the oven mitts? I'm cooking for my welcome home party." Everyone knew Hunk loved to cook. He was always cooking or baking, coming up with his own twists to everything. He called it 'adding a dash of Hunk'.

"Then shouldn't you be-oh, I don't know-cooking?" Keith asked.

"I wish," Hunk said wistfully. "I forgot how long it takes to cook traditional food here. Pig has been cooking for-" He took off an oven mitt and checked his watch. "Four hours, now. Ma said I have to wait until the sixth hour to start steaming the Poi. I'm booored. So...what's going on in your guy's lives. Anything new?"

"Not with me," Pidge said dismissively. "How long _does_ it take to cook a pig and would it take the same amount of time to cook something about the size of-I don't know-a human?"

"8-10 hours in the imu for an a hundred pound pig," Hunk told her. "And I don't even want to know why your asking." He took off his oven mitts. "So, you're telling me _nobody_ has got any news to make the hours go by? No school drama?"

"Nope," Allura said. "Its been quite peaceful here since most of the students have already left for holiday. Even Shiro and Pidge can't find anything new to argue about," she teased before taking a long sip of her tea.

"Keith?"

Was there anything new with Keith? He couldn't really think of anything off the top of his head: he was generally a boring person to be around. 'Same old, same old,' Keith was about to say when he remembered something.

"Oh, yeah. I have a date tonight."

The events that followed should not be attempted at home. Stay safe, kiddos.

Allura gasped, nearly choked on her tea, and ended up spitting most of it directly into Shiro's face. Shiro's arms flailed, searching blindly for a napkin of some sort, but instead, he gabbed Pidge's sleeve, sending her untouched not-so-hot cocoa toppling over and heading directly towards Keith's laptop. Keith, in a mighty attempt to save his precious computer from death, dived towards it. Both Pidge and Allura seemed to have the same idea as him, and the three of them met in the middle, butting heads and sending Pidge's glasses flying off of her face. Shiro, finally locating a napkin, quickly wiped up the spilled drink before it seeped into the circuit board of Keith's laptop.

It was quiet for a while after that, everybody in the entire coffee shop staring at the group of college kids in the middle of the room.

Finally, Shiro spoke up. "I was going to say that I bought a new shirt, but I guess Keith's news is more interesting."

Keith, head still throbbing, rolled his eyes. "What the fuck, guys?" he groaned.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey, hey, so I feel like that chapter was super short, but don't worry: That was only part 1. Part 2 will be posted hecka  
> soon. I promise there will be more dorky friendship happening, as well as some Keith-and-Allura-becoming-best-buds-time coming up. I'm fairly confident that the second part to this will be posted some time before next Sunday, so stay tuned!


	4. As Expensive and Fancy as Giovaldi Himself!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lowkey angst towards the end but it's not that bad, I promise

Chapter 4:

 

They were kicked out of the coffee shop.

After Keith's laptop was tucked safetly in his backpack and Pidge's glasses were placed back on her face, the shop owner asked them to leave because they were-quote, unquote-disturbing the laid back atmosphere that most students relied on to relax.

Whatever.

Keith and his friends left the 'The Place' and sat on the nearest park bench. Almost immediately, Hunk called back on Shiro's phone.

"Keith has date? I heard that right, right?"

Keith grumbled. "Its just a stupid date. _I_ can get a stupid date."

Shiro smiled good-naturedly. "Of course, you can. We just didn't think you would be able to find one so soon..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Keith saw Pidge begrudgingly hand a smirking Allura a ten dollar bill. Had they been betting on him? God, his friends were fucking snakes.

Shiro clapped a hand on Keith's shoulder, just the way Keith hated. "I'm proud of you, little bro." Keith scowled. There was that word again: _proud._ It put a sour taste in his mouth. Shiro had no reason to be proud. Keith had taken the easy way out. He hired a _fucking actor_ to do his dirty work. But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. Instead, Keith gave his friends a very un-keith like smirk. "You should be. Do you know how hard it was to find a Cuban guy in _Oregon?"_

"Oooh, Keith is being spicy. I like it," Hunk said from the phone. Keith could practically _see_ him wiggling his eyebrows, all the way in Hawaii.

He blushed. "S-shut up." It wasn't even a real date, just a meeting, really. Leave it to his annoying friends to make him feel all weird about it.

"Aww, our son is growing up," Pidge said, pretending to wipe tears from her eyes. Keith flicked her nose, somthing he did a lot-mostly to get her to stop teasing him. "You act like you're not three years younger than me."

"Leave him alone, guys," Allura told them, smirking. "So, Keith. When is this date again?"

"Uh..." Keith checked the time on his phone. "Like...45 minutes?"

_**"What?!"** _

That time, it was only Hunk and Allura who seemed distressed, but it was equally loud, sending all the pidgons in a one mile radius into flight.

Keith frowned. "What now?"

"Dude, you have a date in less than an hour," Hunk screeched from the phone. "You're not even dressed!" 

Keith looked down at his clothes-his favorite red hoodie and a pair of black jeans. "Yeah, man-I'm pretty sure I'm dressed."

Allura gave him a smile that seemed to say '[insert British accent here] oh Keith, you oblivious little worm what am I going to do with you?'

"What Hunk means is, you're not dressed _enough._ This is a date, Keith. At least brush your hair." 

"Wha-I do brush my hair!" 

"No you don't," Shiro and Pidge said in unison. Keith scowled.

"Keith, you don't even own a brush," Hunk sighed from the phone. 

"Okay, fine. Maybe I don't always brush it, but that doesn't change how betrayed I feel right now," Keith said glaring at his so-called "friends".

"Well, maybe you don't have to be all dressed up...." Allura mumbled, tapping her chin with her index finger. She looked up at Keith. "Where are you going for this date? I mean-is it casual? Like, at a coffee shop or something?" 

Was it? Keith didn't even know what Giovaldi's was.

"I'm...not sure. I just know that its called Giovaldi's-"

**_"What?!"_ **

Keith sighed. What now? "I swear, if you guys do that one more time, I'm never talking to either one of you again."

Hunk seemed to be hyperventilating. He was breathing loudly and heavily, the sound crackling through the speaker of Shiro's phone. "Dude. Dude. Do you know what Giovaldi's _is_?"

"Well, no," Keith said. He didn't even know _where_ it was. "What is it?"

Allura spoke for him. "Giovaldi's is like, the most exclusive resturant in Corvallis! And you wanted to wear a hoodie-I ought to box your ears!" she said shrilly.

Keith rolled his eyes. "How exclusive can a restaurant _be_ in Corvallis? I mean, its _Corvallis."_

"Actully, its supposed to be one of the best restaurants in all of Oregon. All the rich people go there for lunch after their tennis games and whatnot," Pidge said. "Max from my advanced chemistry class said he once ate some leftovers from their trash can. Said it was the best food he'd ever had in his _life_." 

"Wow," Shiro said. "I've officially lost all hope for humanity."

"Well how the hell am I supposed to dress for the 'fanciest restaurant in all of Oregon'?" Keith questioned, making quotes in the air with his fingers. He didn't know the first thing about looking presentable-he basically wore the same thing everyday, he hadn't gotten an _actual_ haircut since 2014, and yeah-he didn't own a hairbrush for shit. Hunk, of course, knew how helpless he was with this sort of thing. He usually picked out Keith's clothes for special occasions (like the tux for his aunt's wedding).

"Somebody needs to help Keith get ready," Hunk said, as if he'd just read his roommate's mind. "If he's gonna get this boy to meet his family after the _first date_ , he needs to look as expensive and fancy as Giovalidi himself!"

Silence.

"Hey, don't look at me," Pidge said. "I've never been on a date in my life."

"Uh," Shiro said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm still not sure why Allura would ever want to date me so..." He blushed.

"I could do it," Allura spoke up, blushing. "I mean, I you don't really know me very well, but I'll try my best."

"Yeah, sure," Keith said. If Hunk wasn't here, Allura was the next best thing, right?

 

 ~~~

 

"OW!"

"Hold still," Allura said through gritted teeth as she vigorously raked the brush through Keith's mess of black hair.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow-fuck, Allura. Can't you be a _little_ more gentle?" Keith asked. He was sitting in front of the vanity in Allura's dorm room, glaring at her through the mirror as she _ripped his precious hairs out of his head._ Basically, everything hurt-his nails had been filed, his face scrubbed clean, his goddamn _eyebrows_ plucked. If this was what people actually did to themselves before a date, count on this being the last date Keith ever went on.

"It wouldn't hurt so much if you just brushed your hair once in a while," the chocolate skinned girl chided. She ran the brush through his hair a few more times-only this time it hurt much less-and then she set it down, smiling as she did so. "Do you like it?"

Keith looked at himself in the mirror. He looked...good, like a much healthier, much less tired version of himself. His hair was in the same distinct mullet shape as it usually was, but now it was shiny and smooth looking. He liked it. His face seemed to glow, although the bags under his eyes were still visible. He was wearing a red button-down shirt with some of Shiro's non-faded, non-ripped black pants. "Wow," he muttered. Keith actually wanted to date himself. Forget Lance Sanchez, Keith would bring _himself_ home to meet his parents. He suddenly realized he hadn't answered Allura's question. He smiled at her through the mirror. "I like it."

She sighed in relief. "I'm glad you do. I've never really given and emergency make-over before."

"Really?" Keith asked. He never would've guessed it. "I figured you had sisters or something."

Allura smiled sadly. "No...well, I had one, but I never got to give her a make-over."

"Why not?"

She gulped, and Keith suddenly wondered whether he should've just kept his mouth shut.

"A few years ago, just after I started college, my parents-they...they perished in a fire. My mother was pregnant and...the baby-she died with them."

Keith didn't know what to say. He didn't even know what it was like-to loose everything all at once. He'd never known his birth parents, but he had Shiro and his adopted mom and dad-his  _true_ mom and dad. "I'm sorry," he said, feeling stupid for having asked in the first place.

Allura looked sad, but she smiled reassuringly at Keith. "Oh-it's fine. I mean, it's not fine, but I've been getting better. Professor Coran has always been like a second father to me, so he's helped me a lot. And Shiro is very sweet and understanding and I love him to bits-" She blushed. "Sorry, I'm rambling, now."

Keith grinned (something he rarely did). He liked Allura. And he was glad his brother liked Allura. And he knew his parents would like Allura when Shiro brought her home tomorrow. "Well," he said awkwardly. "Feel free to do _my_ make up anytime."

Allura laughed. "You got it. Now let's get you to Giovaldi's. You've got a man to charm."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter. My guy Lance is FINALLY gonna be introduced in the next chapter!
> 
> also hmu on tumblr if you want: http://nasally-voice.tumblr.com/


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